Snowmobiles are popular land vehicles used as transportation vehicles or as recreational vehicles in cold and snowy conditions. In general, a snowmobile has a central frame or chassis on or around which the various components of the snowmobile are assembled. Typical snowmobiles include skis for steering, a seat, handlebars, and an endless track for propulsion mounted to a central chassis. A bulkhead is defined by a plurality of front structural members of the chassis. The engine drives a ground-engaging endless track disposed in a longitudinally extending drive tunnel formed within the chassis. The skis serve to facilitate steering as well as to provide flotation of the front of the snowmobile over the snow in which it is operated. The skis are mounted at the front body portion of the chassis. A handlebar assembly, positioned forward of the seat, is operatively linked to the skis for steering the snowmobile. The skis may be pivoted laterally to steer the snowmobile, for example, by turning the handlebars.
Past snowmobiles have used liquid cooling systems to cool their internal combustion engines. Snowmobiles with these liquid-cooled engines often have heat exchangers spaced away from the engine itself. In some of these snowmobiles, the heat exchangers are positioned within the drive tunnel that is within the snowmobile chassis. The drive track, also disposed within the drive tunnel, carries and circulates snow within the drive tunnel as the track moves. The heat exchangers are positioned adjacent the track so that some of the snow carried by the track will be thrown at the heat exchangers to provide a heat transfer. The melting of snow requires a substantial amount of heat that is removed from the coolant circulated in the heat exchangers. Typically a snowmobile with a liquid cooled engine has one of the cooling system elements placed in the front close off area of the chassis. The reason for this is that it is one of the most effective cooling area of the snowmobile due to the snow and ice that is thrown into this area from the drive track. The cooler is typically mounted to the front close off panel. On the opposite side of the close off panel typically there are some structures that are designed to receive motor mounts for isolating the engine vibration from the chassis.
It is also desirable to isolate engine vibrations from the chassis. When snowmobiles are powered by two-stroke engines, large amounts of vibration are often produced. In order to decrease the amount of vibration from the engine to the chassis, typically, engines are supported by an engine mount attached to the bottom of the engine in a way that enabled vibration absorbing elements to be placed between the engine mount and the chassis. However, such conventional engine mounts require relatively large amounts of space within the chassis for the engine and to provide the space needed to position the vibration absorbing elements.
Also, the tunnel and bulkhead have traditionally been made of a very strong but light-weight material such as aluminum. To withstand the forces encountered under normal operating conditions, reinforcing elements are added to increase the rigidity of the tunnel and bulkhead so that they do not bend or buckle under high loads. Unfortunately, this adds significantly to the overall weight of the vehicle.
As engines increase in size and weight, less space is available for within the chassis for mounting such larger and heavier engines. In addition, the chassis must be reinforced to support a heavier engine. Yet, additional reinforcements require additional chassis space. Accordingly, there exists a need for a new engine mount that can be used in a snowmobile that occupies less space, is more easily assembled and is more lightweight. Similarly, there is a need for a new front heat exchanger having such desirable properties where the chassis has less available space for both the engine and for such an new engine mount.